Facing a new master plan, development interests in Stamford square off

Elizabeth Kim

Published 1:00 am, Sunday, July 13, 2014

After a long dispute, Carl Kuehner, Building and Land Technology's CEO (left) and Sandy Goldstein, president of the Downtown Special Services District, celebrated the opening of the trolley connecting the downtown and South End in February. Stamford Mayor David Martin is pictured at right.
Photo: Dru Nadler

Last spring, Stamford embarked on a more than a yearlong effort to update its master plan by holding a series of public workshops. Spearheaded by planners, the forums were promoted as a rare opportunity for average citizens to shape the city's future.

But as the process draws to a close and the city's Planning Board nails down the details of a high-stakes plan that spells out a road map for development, it is the city's biggest business interests that are emerging as the most vocal stakeholders, drawing battle lines that could have an impact on the landscape, quality of life and economy for years to come.

In what has been one of the most closely followed changes, the 2024 master plan will include a re-categorization and remapping of the downtown, an area designated for the city's most-intense development. At the same time, the plan will also incorporate the South End and the success of the $3.5 billion Harbor Point redevelopment with the creation of a new land-use category called "urban mixed use."

`Lower density'

Throughout the public process, the Downtown Special Services District, a special taxing district made up of downtown property owners, and Harbor Point developer Building and Land Technology have pushed their agendas with painstakingly detailed feedback to draft versions of the master plan. In April, referring to a draft of the proposed urban mixed-use category, the DSSD asked the requirement calling for development to be at a "slightly lower density" than the downtown be changed to "significantly lower density." Last month, BLT came back with its own revision, suggesting the language be loosened to say development in the proposed category should "consider a lower density" than the downtown.

Some observers have described the back-and-forth as a battle between rival stakeholders as well worn. Last spring, the DSSD appeared before the zoning board to protest BLT's failure to provide a free shuttle service connecting the downtown and South End, which DSSD representatives argued had been required under Harbor Point's zoning approval. At first BLT balked, but the feud was officially put to rest in February when the two groups appeared smilingly at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the launch of the Harbor Point Trolley. The amenity has since been deemed a success by all parties, including the city.

`Three flavors'

Among city planning officials, the latest jockeying by the two sides is seen as part and parcel of the master plan process.

"Anytime you put something forward you're going to have people who will love it, like it, dislike it or hate it," said David Killeen, an associate planner in the city's land-use bureau.

The challenge for the Planning Board, he said, is to take all the differing viewpoints into account and then try to forge a consensus. "How do you take a concept and refine it so it achieves the best vision for most of the groups?" he said. "It's not an easy task."

Such has been the case with redefining the downtown. Earlier this year, the city's team of planning consultants, led by New York-based BFJ Planning, decided that Stamford needed to simplify the 2002 master plan, which created "three flavors" of the downtown:

The downtown core -- a wide swath of mixed-use development north of the corridor; and

The downtown collar -- a designation for the transitional areas on the outermost edges.

The consultants proposed doing away with the three categories and instead draw up one downtown. But from the beginning, the decision of where to place those boundaries, particularly in the area south of the train station, has been a highly sensitive issue. The DSSD has argued against an over-expansion of the downtown, saying it should remain concentrated so as to promote the area's strength as Stamford's commercial and cultural center.

Controlling growth

"You want to control growth for the best interest of the city," Sandy Goldstein, the president of the DSSD, said in a telephone interview last week.

For the time being at least, it appears that DSSD may have won the battle. Under the latest proposed plan to be released by the planning board later this month, the downtown will be considerably smaller than the consultants' initial proposal. To the north, the downtown border will end at North Street as opposed to Hoyt Street.

And in a more controversial move, the board has also amended the boundaries south of the train station, carving out a portion west of Atlantic Street and bounded by Pulaski and Henry Streets. In doing so, the downtown now encompasses sites that have already been approved for transit-oriented developments­ -- Gateway, a proposed office and housing project by BLT that currently consists of a 2,000-space parking garage, and Metro Green, a mixed-use project developed by Jonathan Rose Cos. and Malkin Properties that thus far has housing.

But the plan notably leaves out any properties east of Atlantic Street, including those on Station Place and Manhattan Street, where the state has tapped developer John McClutchy for a $500 million, 1-million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment as part of a replacement plan for the state-owned parking garage at the train station.

`Irrational' decision

Instead, those lands would be placed in the new urban mixed-use category, which allows for moderate to high-density development but would nonetheless have to fall below the density that is permitted downtown.

Reached for comment last week, McClutchy, the train-station area developer, called the decision "irrational," saying that the proposal goes against a movement by other cities to increase densities around their transportation centers.

"These properties that surround the train station are properties that connect the downtown with the South End," he said. "It seems to me you would increase the density. You would want the opportunities for housing, hotel space, and office space."

Robin Stein, the city's former land-use bureau chief who presided over the 2002 master plan and now serves as a special assistant to the mayor on economic development, said he planned to address the issue with Mayor David Martin. "From a planning perspective, transit-oriented development has always been an important concept that is critical to the development of Stamford," he said.

`Artificial' diminishment

He said that under the 2002 master plan, the area surrounding the Stamford Transportation Center had been singled out as places where development could be as intense as the downtown.

Amanda Kennedy, the Connecticut director of the Regional Plan Association, said she was unaware of the redrawn boundaries around the train station, but cautioned, "From a planning perspective, you don't want to artificially diminish the value of properties around your biggest asset, which is the train station."

The planning agency, which assisted the city on its 2002 master plan, is slated to provide input this time around as well.

Reached on vacation last week, Theresa Dell, the chairman of the planning board, said that without being able to look at the plan, she could not comment on the board's rationale for the revised downtown.

However, she stressed that nothing had been finalized. The board is expected to hold a public hearing in October before approving the final master plan. She said the board would take all considerations into account at that time.

"We may need to tweak it," Dell said, adding that the board had to date not received any complaints about the changes.

With so much of the city's energies having been poured into forging compromises between the downtown and South End, the late-game scrambling by McClutchy to protect his interests in the area surrounding the train-station -- a zone that is poised to become a flash point for development -- has come as a surprise.

McClutchy, who is set to meet city officials on Monday, said he did not learn of the revised boundaries until about a week ago. He had not been attending the meetings.